Jesus approaches and moves through the ancient city of Jericho. Here the road turns up to Jerusalem. The road is short and steep. His first stop will be the Mount of Olives to prepare for his entry. In Jericho, Jesus teaches about his coming passion and death, heals a blind man, meets Zacchaeus, short in stature, and tells a parable about committed discipleship. The themes of Luke 19 seem to be tied together by this important teaching. Based on the choice of the Wisdom reading paired with the Gospel, the teaching is on humility. The road to Jerusalem leads to the cross; in Luke’s gospel in a few Sundays we will be at the cross. For the end of this liturgical year, the Church chooses for the Solemnity of the Christ the Kind, the story of the repentant their on the cross beside Jesus. Matthew tells us nothing of this incident, Mark relates only that Jesus was crucified between “two revolutionaries”, Luke calls them criminals and tells about the whole conversation, and John merely says “two others”, nothing more.
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